In Economics, the term ‘short-termism’ has been studied by all. For those of you who don’t study Economics, short-termism is when firms don’t think about the long term benefits of their current investments and decisions. This might lead to them getting quick profits in the present, but it won’t benefit in the long-term. For example, a firm might think that investing in robotic technology will just increase their costs, and there won’t be any return (profit) on investment at the moment. However, it could be useful to them in the future as it will be quicker and easier, making it cheaper to produce stuff and ultimately increase profits.
However, think about the other side of the coin. Long-termism is important, but we might be giving it too much value. People like to plan ahead and think about the future rather than just the present. Most of us often follow long-termism unknowingly. When we are saving earnings, what are we doing except keeping money so it can be used later in life? But at the same time, we can’t control everything in our lives, as there is a limit to how much we can plan ahead. We might be able to protect ourselves from the consequences of a few unfortunate events, but nobody has complete power over how their path ahead turns out to be. In fact, I think that every person only has a small amount of control over their own life. After all, each person’s life has an impact on many others too, directly or indirectly. Therefore, our lives are affected by other people’s lives too. There are some events that shape the next stage of our existence, and those we had no control over.
I am not against the idea of long-termism. I think it is a useful technique in planning for the future so that we can be more efficient and support our needs and wants. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” He meant that spending the majority of the time planning for the next step is what should be done. Long-termism isn’t just a random topic, but instead a useful concept and something which needs to be taken seriously.
I’m trying to say that not everything is in our own hands. Others deserve some slack when they follow short-termism, whether it be in business or just day-to-day lives.
At the end of the day, one never knows what tomorrow will bring them. It is impossible to plan for everything ahead of time because we never know what’s coming next. Even in our everyday lives, I think it is okay to just think about the moment rather than always try to think with a long-term perspective. We are told to think on a long-term basis so we can be protected in future, but perhaps it's not wrong to sometimes just care about the present.
Long-term thinking is useful and important to maximise what we have. But it doesn’t mean that it is always the best path to follow. Short-termism may not be a sustainable way of thinking, but at times nothing can be done about it. I wouldn’t call it wrong to choose the path of short-termism from time to time.
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